Dieting is considered one of the best fast weight loss solutions. The more restrictive a diet is, the faster the results will show ? or so many people think. But is it really so? I do believe that whoever comes up with these lightning-quick weight loss programs go to great lengths to ensure that nobody will be able to follow the program. And then they can safely say that you haven't seen the expected results because you did not do what you were supposed to do. And even if you would be able to stick to it, how effective and how safe is such a program?

If just want to lose 5 pounds within a week to attend that fancy party and you don't care about the price of crash dieting, then you should be fine with almost any quick diet out there. If, however, you want long-lasting results and a new, better way of life, then this type of diet is clearly not for you.

The only way you can lose weight with a fast diet is by reducing the amount of fluids in your body. So most of the time a quick diet will make you lose those 5 pounds from the water you body retains in fat tissues, muscular tissues and major organs. Unfortunately there's no way to know how your body will react to a provoked dehydration, so instead of losing the water trapped in the fat tissues, you may very well lose water trapped in your muscles or liver or brain.

If, at any point, you feel like you are a little bit slower than usual, you find it a bit hard to focus and to accomplish the common tasks of everyday life, and then you're experiencing a mild dehydration that has affected your brain. Useless to say that this can turn out to be potentially dangerous because there's no way to know when your brain will overheat because of lack of water.

This doesn't sound pretty, but it can get worse and here is how. I have seen a lot of quick diets that stress on the importance of physical exercise as a way to make your weight loss permanent. One thing is for sure: the more you exercise, the better it is for your body health and also for your mind. But, there is a ?but?. Combining a fast weight loss program that makes you lose water with physical exercises can lead you into really dangerous situations.

They say that you have to drink plenty of water to keep hydrated and that's true. But the fact is that once the kidneys are stimulated to work overtime, the balance of your body is affected and the results are absolutely unpredictable. If you would lose the water trapped in the fat tissues then all is fine ? unfortunately body fat contains only 25% percent water. Now guess where the rest of the water is to be found! In your muscles ? muscles contain about 75% water. Furthermore, in men, about 72% of the body mass is water and only 68% in women, due to a higher amount of body fat.

So do yourself a favor ? lose weight the smart way. With sensible diets, don't dehydrate yourself to death. The only thing that you can do when you lose water is to lose muscle mass and that's the last thing you want.